In a major makeover plan for the much-stressed Central Railway (CR) suburban system, the management is studying an ambitious Rs 20,000 crore plan improve services including acquisition of 150 new rakes and introduction of additional routes and adequate parking lines.

Akhil Agrawal, General Manager, Central Railway, has reportedly said that he is studying the report of a committee on improving the suburban services and will take an appropriate decision. The committee was formed at the instance of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was shocked after a video clip of an accidental death near Thane went viral, notes that ten people die daily on CR tracks and the basic reason for this is the huge demand-supply gap.

The committee cautioned that the situation with the existing stock can be explosive by 2030 as the number of casualties will multiply manifold due to open doors on the trains, the committee cautions and stresses that CR trains need air-conditioning and door closures much before the Western Railway.

The Central Railway is known to have taken various steps like increasing frequency of trains, introducing 12 coach rakes which resulted in fall in deaths on tracks due to various reasons over the past eight months to 1,414 as compared to the figure of 2,187 over the previous year.